One in six properties in England are at risk of flooding. Storm Desmond, which affected northern England in December 2015, highlighted once again the importance of how the country should be better prepared for future extreme weather events. The Government’s action to tackle this risk was emphasised by the commitment to initiate a National Flood […]

The government’s non-executive directors (NED) started in 2005 with an emphasis made by the coalition government in 2010 to attract experts with commercial experience largely drawn from the private sector. Now in its 10th year, the initiative is explored in the government Lead Non-Executive’s Annual Report. Our opinion is that good progress has been achieved […]

The Conservative Party election manifesto mentioned promotion and funding in innovation strategy in five areas: 1) Motor industry in the Midlands; 2) Ari-tech and high tech industry in the east of England; 3) Britain as a technological innovation hub; 4) Healthcare life science industry; and 5) Policing innovation to transform public relations using technology. The […]

Our five step policy recommendations are not radical, but they are incremental innovations. We are confident that they will achieve cost savings, improve efficiency and productivity to streamline workflow and foster collaboration to harness renewable energy of patients, carers, volunteers and social care services and million + frontline NHS staff. Our objective is to decrease […]

In June 2010, the Government invited local business and civic leaders to come forward with proposals for establishing LEPs that reflected natural economic geographies. The Government announced the approval of 24 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the Local Growth White Paper on 28 October 2010. A further 15 LEPs, including one covering the whole of […]

In this we explore the role of culture, and in particular risk culture, in public organisations like Civil Service, BBC and NHS and how contemporary business ideas can benefit governmental reform initiatives. Risk culture can be defined as the values, beliefs, knowledge, and understanding about risk shared by a group of people with a common […]

This paper discusses the importance of risk appetite to the governance process in public services. 1. Explains a way of articulating risk appetite 2. Introduces a framework for developing a risk appetite statement 3. Building an illustrative risk appetite statement 4. Policy proposals Part 1: Articulating Risk Appetite Risk appetite is defined as the amount […]

In 2007 Nassim Nicholas Taleb published his now famous book, The Black Swan in which the notion of risk was expanded beyond financial markets into seemingly unpredictable and devastating events that carry extreme impact, despite being explicable after the event. He called these events Black Swans. Recent examples include UK urban unrest (2011), volcanic ash cloud (2010) […]